Eastern European Tennis Players become Aussies

In the past two months, two eastern European tennis players became Australians further boosting the strength of Australian women's tennis. Former Russian Anastasia Rodionova was sworn in as an Australian citizen at a ceremony in Melbourne, one of four cities in the world that host tennis Grand Slam tournaments. Last month, former Slovakia player Jarmila Groth also received her Australian passport.

The warm weather in Australia, the known hospitality, warmth and friendliness of the people, and the affinity of the country to tennis must have been too irresistible for these ladies. In a recent check at Google's search volume index, Australia leads the world in the number of searchers for the word "tennis". Melbourne and Sydney ranked 1 and 2 in the cities googling for "tennis".

The addition of Rodionova, currently at #96, means that Australia now have three players in the top 100. Samantha Stosur remains the top Aussie lady at #13. Monaco-based and Croatian-born Jelena Dokic occupies the #57 spot. Groth, at #111 is the 4th highest ranked Australian woman tennis player.

Rodionova and Groth took advantage of recent changes to Australia's citizenship requirements. Before, individuals who spend 90 days or more outside the country in the year prior to their citizenship application were considered ineligible. As both are globe-trotting tennis professionals, they would have had a hard time meeting that requirement. Extra-ordinary athletes who have the backing of sport organizations such as Tennis Australia can now apply for citizenship after two years instead of four. They just need to spend six months in Australia during that period.

Rodionova revealed that she was as nervous before taking the citizenship test as she is before a big match. She however got all 20 questions correct. Game, set, Aussie citizenship to Rodionova.